Orchids: Attraction and Deception
Barry Art Museum at Old Dominion University
Norfolk, VA
Pictured:
Orchid Vignette, 21st Century
2020
17" w. x 24 1/2” h. x 18" d.
German crepe paper, glue, wire, floral tape, stain, chalk, ribbon
From curator Charlotte Kasic:
For our second changing exhibition, the Barry Art Museum is thrilled to present Orchids: Attraction and Deception. The exhibition was created by the museum staff, along with incalculable input from a diverse team of Old Dominion University students, artists, and art historians, and in collaboration with Darrin Duling Associate Director at the Kaplan Orchid Conservatory and Lisa Wallace J. Robert Stiffler Distinguished Professor in Botany at Old Dominion University. Located in our rotating gallery, the exhibition will present works of art relating to the visual allure, ecological idiosyncrasy, and cultural impact of orchids. Timed to coincide with the bloom cycle of orchids at the Kaplan Conservatory, the exhibition schedule will include public programming in partnership with the Conservatory, the Norfolk Botanical Gardens, Oak Springs Foundation, and the Barry Art Museum.
When artists begin to investigate orchids as subject matter, the results are as varied and deep as the plants themselves. According to the nonprofit Rainforest Alliance, there are more than 25,000 species of flowering plants in the orchid family. The work included in this exhibition ranges widely, mirroring its inspiration – one of the largest and most diverse plant groups on the planet.
Is this a show about orchids? Yes, but orchids are just the tip of the melting iceberg, the canary in the shuttered coal mine, the indicator species for our greater world, the cipher for our evolving culture. From pure botanical fascination to climate change, from historical model-making to the history of collecting and colonization, the twelve contemporary artists represented approach the orchid from very different angles. This international group of artists has independently discovered the orchid as subject matter through rigorous research and poetic intuition. Working in printmaking, sculpture, photography, ceramics, glass, paper, and varied hybrid media, their work is thoughtful, insightful, challenging, and beautiful – and designed to provoke you to think deeper about that favorite design magazine staple, that easily overlooked supermarket flower, the orchid.
Participating artists:
JENNIFER ANGUS
ROXANA AZAR
BRENDAN BAYLOR
BRETT DAY WINDHAM
CALISTA LYON
DAVID WILLIS
TIFFANIE TURNER
NATALJA KENT
DEBORA MOORE
PAUL STANKARD
THE OAK SPRINGS FOUNDATION
Artist Statement:
This paper sculpture (Orchid Vignette, 21st Century) of orchids, leaves, and roots mimics the configuration of a 17th Century European woodcut of Mexican orchids, having been collected and recorded to track their medicinal properties. The woodcut depicts tropical orchids in a cut bouquet, while this assemblage contains moth (Phalaenopsis) orchids; two cut stems and one living center spike, with roots not grounded but still searching to be. The blooms on the center spike are dyed blue, representing the practice of augmenting the natural colors of flowers as found often in modern floristry, and providing a metaphor for the lengths we as humans will go to manipulate our own appearances for beauty’s sake. The two side stems are included to represent the side arms of the composition of the original “Orchid Vignette”, but having been cut, are beginning to wilt and drop their flowers. All three stems of blooms lack flower buds, suggesting that hope may not always spring eternal, and that some ideas should not continue to blossom.
As some Americans are reckoning at this time with the truths of the colonization of this country, the ways and lengths to which people have gone to appropriate orchids out of their native settings can offer many parallels, for those who chose to see them.